Anti-Intellectualism and the "Dumbing Down" of America

josevolution

jeffbr said:

Apparently 1/4 of Americans don't know that the Earth orbits the Sun!?!?!? Wow.

And the fact that only 74 percent of participants knew that the Earth revolved around the sun is perhaps less alarming than the fact that only 48 percent knew that humans evolved from earlier species of animals.

Here’s the thing, though: Americans actually fared better than Europeans who took similar quizzes — at least when it came to the sun and Earth question. Only 66 percent of European Union residents answered that one correctly.

You can add Bafoon to the list if bet $ he doesn't know any of those ?s

polaris_x

i remember traveling in africa with US medical students and I knew more about US geography and history then they did ... that was like 20 years ago ...

JC29856

Anyone find this article and the photos taken be the photographer odd?

https://archive.is/U88oU

HughFreakingDillon

PJfanwillneverleave1 said:

seanwon said:

cottagesteeze said:

seanwon said:

Go Beavers said:

I said there's no trend of growing anti-intellectualism.

Yeah, I don't know. I seem to hear a lot of Conservatives attacking education in recent years. Telling people college is a waste of time because the professors are all "commies", and they are teaching all our kids to be "Socialists". I don't recall hearing that talk 10 years ago, it seems to be a somewhat recent thing.

I'm a recent college grad and have been talked down to in political discussion for the fact that I graduated college. I went to school for engineering, yet some people still insist that my political views all came from my liberal hippy socialist professors..

Yup, and it is never too long into the debate before you hear the "just because you have an education doesn't mean you're smart" card.

It's true though.
Some people can tell you the square root of a pickle jar but can't open it.

ok, this made me fucking

HughFreakingDillon

PJfanwillneverleave1 said:

PJPOWER said:

Shawshank said:

This seems to be on topic...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-Be9f7Ovgg

That's pretty pathetic...wonder who the majority of them are voting for!?!?

Well if your country is that chalk and block full of dumb people that you say it is and they all vote then Trump is your next POTUS.

so back in July you were saying only dumb people would vote for Trump.....now he is your Jesus. When did that switch happen?

PJfanwillneverleave1

HughFreakingDillon said:

PJfanwillneverleave1 said:

PJPOWER said:

Shawshank said:

This seems to be on topic...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-Be9f7Ovgg

That's pretty pathetic...wonder who the majority of them are voting for!?!?

Well if your country is that chalk and block full of dumb people that you say it is and they all vote then Trump is your next POTUS.

so back in July you were saying only dumb people would vote for Trump.....now he is your Jesus. When did that switch happen?

No switch.
I think you misunderstand me sometimes. Earlier in July I was demonstrating how Trump can reach all people and he does a really good job at it. His campaign was brilliant. Even back in July I knew Trump would win and you all would have none of it. So this thread and some videos on here showing how dumb some people are, yes most of them probably voted for Trump. But I don't think all of his support was from people that dumb. There are even a few closet Trump voters on AMT that I don't think are dumb people.
This jesus thing really has you confused -
It's a satisfying thing for me to support and believe in a real person that others refuse to accept or believe in just like jesus.
Trump is my jesus christ.
Amen.

HughFreakingDillon

PJfanwillneverleave1 said:

When I posted this article in the Trump thread https://newrepublic.com/article/134667/conservatives-groomed-perfect-suckers-trumps-epic-scam
I wasn't sure if it belonged here but I thought of this thread.
There’s another factor at work here: The anti-intellectualism that has been a mainstay of the conservative movement for decades also makes its members easy marks. After all, if you are taught to believe that the reigning scientific consensuses on evolution and climate change are lies, then you will lack the elementary logical skills that will set your alarm bells ringing when you hear a flim-flam artist like Trump. The Republican “war on science” is also a war on the intellectual habits needed to detect lies.

PJfanwillneverleave1 said:

^^^
I don't want to derail, but it seems there is an awful lot.

well, maybe you can understand my confusion when you make these two posts.......

CM189191

PJfanwillneverleave1 said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

PJfanwillneverleave1 said:

PJPOWER said:

Shawshank said:

This seems to be on topic...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-Be9f7Ovgg

That's pretty pathetic...wonder who the majority of them are voting for!?!?

Well if your country is that chalk and block full of dumb people that you say it is and they all vote then Trump is your next POTUS.

so back in July you were saying only dumb people would vote for Trump.....now he is your Jesus. When did that switch happen?

No switch.
I think you misunderstand me sometimes. Earlier in July I was demonstrating how Trump can reach all people and he does a really good job at it. His campaign was brilliant. Even back in July I knew Trump would win and you all would have none of it. So this thread and some videos on here showing how dumb some people are, yes most of them probably voted for Trump. But I don't think all of his support was from people that dumb. There are even a few closet Trump voters on AMT that I don't think are dumb people.
This jesus thing really has you confused -
It's a satisfying thing for me to support and believe in a real person that others refuse to accept or believe in just like jesus.
Trump is my jesus christ.
Amen.

JC29856

CM189191 said:

PJfanwillneverleave1 said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

PJfanwillneverleave1 said:

PJPOWER said:

Shawshank said:

This seems to be on topic...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-Be9f7Ovgg

That's pretty pathetic...wonder who the majority of them are voting for!?!?

Well if your country is that chalk and block full of dumb people that you say it is and they all vote then Trump is your next POTUS.

so back in July you were saying only dumb people would vote for Trump.....now he is your Jesus. When did that switch happen?

No switch.
I think you misunderstand me sometimes. Earlier in July I was demonstrating how Trump can reach all people and he does a really good job at it. His campaign was brilliant. Even back in July I knew Trump would win and you all would have none of it. So this thread and some videos on here showing how dumb some people are, yes most of them probably voted for Trump. But I don't think all of his support was from people that dumb. There are even a few closet Trump voters on AMT that I don't think are dumb people.
This jesus thing really has you confused -
It's a satisfying thing for me to support and believe in a real person that others refuse to accept or believe in just like jesus.
Trump is my jesus christ.
Amen.

Hilarious!

tbergs

PJfanwillneverleave1 said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

PJfanwillneverleave1 said:

PJPOWER said:

Shawshank said:

This seems to be on topic...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-Be9f7Ovgg

That's pretty pathetic...wonder who the majority of them are voting for!?!?

Well if your country is that chalk and block full of dumb people that you say it is and they all vote then Trump is your next POTUS.

so back in July you were saying only dumb people would vote for Trump.....now he is your Jesus. When did that switch happen?

No switch.
I think you misunderstand me sometimes. Earlier in July I was demonstrating how Trump can reach all people and he does a really good job at it. His campaign was brilliant. Even back in July I knew Trump would win and you all would have none of it. So this thread and some videos on here showing how dumb some people are, yes most of them probably voted for Trump. But I don't think all of his support was from people that dumb. There are even a few closet Trump voters on AMT that I don't think are dumb people.
This jesus thing really has you confused -
It's a satisfying thing for me to support and believe in a real person that others refuse to accept or believe in just like jesus.
Trump is my jesus christ.
Amen.

Dumb would be inaccurate. More like ignorant and indifferent. You can be smart and still fall in to those categories.

What we didn't need is a president who proclaims he's smart, but acts ignorant and indifferent the majority of the time and says/does dumb things.

PJ_Soul

HughFreakingDillon said:

PJfanwillneverleave1 said:

PJPOWER said:

Shawshank said:

This seems to be on topic...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-Be9f7Ovgg

That's pretty pathetic...wonder who the majority of them are voting for!?!?

Well if your country is that chalk and block full of dumb people that you say it is and they all vote then Trump is your next POTUS.

so back in July you were saying only dumb people would vote for Trump.....now he is your Jesus. When did that switch happen?

He's not really a Trump supporter (maybe I should put this statement in my signature, lol).

jeffbr

Just saw this article today, and it helped me understand how Trump got elected:
The surprising number of American adults who think chocolate milk comes from brown cows
"Seven percent of all American adults believe that chocolate milk comes from brown cows, according to a nationally representative online survey commissioned by the Innovation Center of U.S. Dairy."

"If you do the math, that works out to 16.4 million misinformed, milk-drinking people. The equivalent of the population of Pennsylvania (and then some!) does not know that chocolate milk is milk, cocoa and sugar."

Bentleyspop

jeffbr said:

Just saw this article today, and it helped me understand how Trump got elected:
The surprising number of American adults who think chocolate milk comes from brown cows
"Seven percent of all American adults believe that chocolate milk comes from brown cows, according to a nationally representative online survey commissioned by the Innovation Center of U.S. Dairy."

"If you do the math, that works out to 16.4 million misinformed, milk-drinking people. The equivalent of the population of Pennsylvania (and then some!) does not know that chocolate milk is milk, cocoa and sugar."

Makes you wonder where they think strawberry lemonade comes from.

brianlux

jeffbr said:

Just saw this article today, and it helped me understand how Trump got elected:
The surprising number of American adults who think chocolate milk comes from brown cows
"Seven percent of all American adults believe that chocolate milk comes from brown cows, according to a nationally representative online survey commissioned by the Innovation Center of U.S. Dairy."

"If you do the math, that works out to 16.4 million misinformed, milk-drinking people. The equivalent of the population of Pennsylvania (and then some!) does not know that chocolate milk is milk, cocoa and sugar."

cincybearcat

Lots to discuss here, but I think the dumbing down of America is in full force because dumb people are having more kids while educated people are having less. 

There are many things to "blame":

Welfare system
Education system (maybe before "free college" we should fix our high schools)
Victim mentality
Wage disparity between executives and line workers
Poor sex ed & the taboo nature of sexuality in the USA
Glorification of violence & gangs

But the bottom line is the people who can least afford to have kids and are least prepared to raise them and are least interested in raising them and ensuring they are educated are having the most kids.

Halifax2TheMax

cincybearcat said:

Lots to discuss here, but I think the dumbing down of America is in full force because dumb people are having more kids while educated people are having less. 

There are many things to "blame":

Welfare system
Education system (maybe before "free college" we should fix our high schools)
Victim mentality
Wage disparity between executives and line workers
Poor sex ed & the taboo nature of sexuality in the USA
Glorification of violence & gangs

But the bottom line is the people who can least afford to have kids and are least prepared to raise them and are least interested in raising them and ensuring they are educated are having the most kids.

Yet, high school graduation rates are up and teen pregnancies are down to highest and lowest levels respectfully. But, the undereducated lacking critical thinking skills are a problem.

HesCalledDyer

I'd take the graduation rate with a grain of salt.  Everyone passes now.  It's all but illegal to fail a kid these days.

Go Beavers

Before this goes into the 'get off my lawn' ditch, does anyone have data showing that we're getting dumber over time? 

ponytd

Go Beavers said:

Before this goes into the 'get off my lawn' ditch, does anyone have data showing that we're getting dumber over time? 

I think jeffbr's post about where people believe chocolate milk comes from is a good start for some data

Go Beavers

ponytd said:

Go Beavers said:

Before this goes into the 'get off my lawn' ditch, does anyone have data showing that we're getting dumber over time? 

I think jeffbr's post about where people believe chocolate milk comes from is a good start for some data

That's a single question. We need longitudinal data to support the hypothesis. Otherwise, looking at the answers to single questions and then drawing a conclusion that we're in a downward trend would be 'dumb'.